Honey, I Lost the Baby
by it'sbloomhere
Summary: This is a happy fic. /James being an irresponsible idiot of a father and Lily being all kinds of awesome.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. All rights belong to J. K. Rowling.

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**Honey, I Lost the Baby**

Lily blew gently on the wet ink and bit her lip, glancing out the window. It was already snowing, and the house seemed to shiver in anticipation. She smiled to herself as she remembered the day before when Harry had first seen snow. James had taken him to the verandah when the first flakes started to waft gently down and Harry had squealed and fought hard to grab them.

She went back to her letter, picking up the pen again. "_I'm so happy to hear that you'll be coming! James misses you, and so do I of course. Do tell__Moony__to tag along if he can spare the time. Lots of love, Lily._" She signed off and blew on the paper again, then picked up her wand and waved it over the letter. The paper flew up and the envelope below it stood up straight, along with a photo of the family. The letter and photo slid smoothly in and the envelope sealed shut before flopping back on the desk, as if tired. Lily picked up the sealed envelope and stood up, stretching.

She knew how much this hiding out plan bugged James and Sirius and she felt that the least she could do was keep Sirius updated. To be completely honest, she was slightly relieved with this plan: she could not imagine the stress that would go with being on the run with a little baby. And she would rather Harry grew up in a safe, stable environment…

There was the sound of footsteps in the hall and then a gentle knock on the door. Lily glanced up as James popped his head through the doorway, his mop of hair sticking up at the back. "Lily?"

"Mmm?" she hummed, moving towards the window. Dumbledore had lent them a school owl, a lovely golden screech-owl called Ferris, but Ferris was out hunting. When James did not reply immediately, she looked back at him and noticed his uncomfortable, sheepish face. "What's wrong?"

He scratched the back of his head, a sure sign of his anxiety. Lily suddenly remembered when they were first years and James and Sirius had been caught with a firework in Potion's class. Professor Slughorn had blown up like a toad and shouted at the two pranksters for half the class while the rest of them giggled. James had scratched the back of his head and glanced at Lily, who was sitting nearby with her best friend.

_Her best friend_… She shook her head and said quickly, "James, what's wrong?"

"I, erm, I…" He coughed and scratched the back of his head again. "I can't find Harry."

She was by his side instantly. "What? What do you mean?"

James smiled at her shamefacedly. "I…um, I might have, maybe, wrapped Harry in my Invisibility Cloak for his nap… and, umm, I can't… I can't find him."

"James!" Lily looked at him disapprovingly. "Seriously, this is the third time this _week_! I told you to put that thing away!"

"Aw, honey, but Harry loves playing with it," James grinned. "And honestly, it's a lot more authentic to play Peek-a-boo with the Cloak."

She was already moving past him and into Harry's room. His blankets were lying all rumpled on his cot and his favorite doll and his broomstick lay on the ground. James followed her in, still speaking. "And anyways, Dumbledore's coming by to take it so I just thought that we could play with it while we still have it."

"You're such an idiot," Lily threw him a glare. "You wrapped our _son_ in an _Invisibility_ Cloak. How could you be so irresponsible?"

"I kept him in this room," James said, casting his eyes down. He knew not to mess with her when she was in a mood. "I'm sure you… I mean we! I'm sure we'll find him."

"We better," Lily muttered, already heading to Harry's favorite hiding spot, behind the bookshelf.

However an hour of searching later, the baby was still invisible. Spells, potions, nothing had worked. They had even moved the furniture around manually, but either Harry was awake and quiet and moving around or he'd turned insubstantial as well as invisible. With every passing minute, Lily became more frantic, mumbling "Oh god, I married an idiot, oh god why, why did I marry this idiot…" and shooting James scathing glowers every few seconds.

It must be mentioned that James handled this very well, managing not to make all the funny 'invisible baby' jokes that occurred to him and searching studiously and staying content with making snarky comments in his head to Sirius. He wasn't worried the least, he figured that if they couldn't find Harry now, he would probably start crying when he woke up and they'd find him then.

The two of them straightened up, James pick up the last toy and putting it back in the toy cupboard while Lily frowned at the cot. For a second, neither of them said anything and James decided that the worst was over. He walked over to Lily and put his arms around her comfortingly, resting his lips on the top of her head. "Hey, hon, don't worry about it, we'll find–"

He was cut off by a fist connecting with his cheekbone, and fell back sprawling on the floor. Staring up in bemusement at Lily's patient face, he touched his face tenderly. "Ow," he said in surprise as his face throbbed. Lily narrowed her eyes at him and said in a steely voice, "We better find him soon, James Potter, or I swear to god, you're not getting sex for a _month_."

…_A month? Oh crap, she's serious._ James jumped to his feet, resisting the urge to cradle his bruise which was sure to be turning a vicious red. He thought back hard to exactly where he had put Harry before going to the bathroom. He was sure that he had put his son in his cot or… "Ah!" he exclaimed and Lily looked at him inquiringly with glinting green eyes. The eyes that would cloud dark and smoky when she looked at him, leaning down to kiss his neck and whisper his name in a thrilling voice… He sprinted downstairs to the living room, leaving Lily and thoughts of Lily behind. As his wife pounded after him, he went to the couch and carefully felt the seats.

His hands hit a round, soft object and his fingers squeezed gently. When the object moved, he exulted in silence while feeling his son's leg and tugging the cloak covering him off. Harry's leg appeared and James gently pulled the cloak off, revealing his son sleeping peacefully in a blue onesie. He was about to pick Harry up when Lily crept up next to him and pushed him away. She took her baby in her arms and cradled his head on her shoulder, shooting James another glare. James raised his hands in a 'What?' motion but Lily ignored him and headed back upstairs.

James followed, feeling his face gingerly. His cheek suddenly throbbed painfully and he bit his lip to swallow a cry of pain and a laugh. _Damn_, he thought as he stood at Harry's doorway, _Lily's got a good arm_. But he'd known that already. He remembered their fifth year, when he had dumped Mary Macdonald because… well he couldn't remember. Apparently the girl had been found crying in her bed by Lily, who was close friends with her. Lily had come after James, found him on the Quidditch pitch flirting with some third-years and punched him square on the nose in front of the crowd. Madame Hooch had seen her and given her detention, but all James could remember of her response was her staring at him with those green eyes and flouncing away with a final glare. He'd been hooked long before that but the punch was like a hard knock from reality.

Lily placed Harry in his cot, crooning an unfamiliar melody. James crept closer, opting to stand beside his wife and not behind her. She didn't look at him but moved her head to kiss his arm. His right hand found her left one while Harry's fist curled around her index finger.

Harry was breathing slowly, his little nose wiggling a bit. James stared at his son's face, watching the delicate eyelids that he knew would open to reveal those green eyes he loved so much. His abscondence bugged him to the point that sometimes he would just take his Cloak and sneak out when Lily was busy, just to see if he could do some recon work with Padfoot. But he could tolerate that because it meant that Lily and Harry would be safe. And his wife and son were everything.

Harry's eyes fluttered and James leaned down, smiling. He dropped a kiss on his son's forehead and made to pull away. But in that moment of hesitation, Harry's fist shot out and connected directly with his bruise.

"Ow! Jesus!" He staggered away, clutching his face. Lily stared at him, and Harry looked at him through the bars of his cot. Lily looked down at Harry as James continued to howl, and then back at her husband. Both mother and baby burst into helpless laughter as James shot them both freezing looks.

"Like mother, like son," James muttered as Lily and Harry continued to laugh, the baby giggling in his cot and Lily rolling on the floor.


End file.
